Editor's Note: We would like to make a correction to the I-Team story that aired Friday evening. In the original story, we identified John Meier as the target of an investigation by the FBI. This is a mistake. John Meier is not a target of any investigation. The person who is the subject of the FBI probe has a similar name. We regret the error.
LAS VEGAS -- The top cop for the Clark County School Police is finding himself on the hot seat now that at least two formal investigations are underway into alleged cover ups within the department.
The I-Team first reported in July about allegations of a cover up stemming from a drunken party school cops had with a group of teenagers, a party than ended in a DUI fatality.
School police have a tough and important job, and for the most part, the officers in the field are exemplary. The trouble seems focused at or near the top. A pattern emerges when looking at recent history. Whenever there's a potentially embarrassing case within the school district, the current police administration follows a predictable response pattern: It is someone else's job to investigate. The DA didn't want to press charges, and it's a personnel matter and can't talk about it.
In 2010, according to reports in the Review Journal, a school district accountant named Darren Boyett allegedly used his work computer to transmit lewd images of himself to a 13-year-old girl in Utah, a girl who was actually a cop. Clark County School Police were notified. They found porn on Boyett's office computer along with transcripts of lewd conversations with other teenage girls. No action was ever taken.
School Police Chief Phil Arroyo said a federal agency had already investigated the case, which wasn't true. Arroyo said he had no jurisdiction since the crime occurred in Utah; also not true. In addition, Arroyo said he could not say more because it's a personnel matter.
Boyett still works for the district earning $75,000 a year. Frustrated police in Utah say they can't understand why Arroyo's agency let the matter die without taking action. After Arroyo claimed the case had been rejected by the DA's office, District Attorney David Roger said no case was ever submitted though it appeared there was more than enough evidence to pursue criminal charges.
In 2008, a school employee told the district about ongoing theft in his department. When no action was taken, he provided video of his co-workers in the act of removing security cameras, cameras that could be seen mounted on the employees' home, had anyone bothered to drive by as the I-Team did.
Arroyo's office said there wasn't enough evidence to justify a full investigation. The school district again blamed the DA's office for deciding it wasn't really a criminal matter. Again, the DA said no such decision had ever been made because no case was ever submitted for evaluation.
More recently, when asked about school police boozing it up with teenagers at a party that ended with the DUI death of Angela Peterson in 2009, Chief Arroyo said it had already been investigated by Metro -- which was not true -- and that it was a personnel matter that couldn't be discussed; also disputable.
"It was not a personnel matter. It was the death of a young girl and a criminal cover up of the same. That's not a personnel matter," Attorney Mark Cook said.
Cook represents the parents of Angela Peterson, the young woman killed by drunk driver Kevin Miranda, who had been drinking heavily in the presence of school cops at a party thrown by one of their dispatchers.
Cook is now collecting information from current and former school police employees, many of whom have also contacted the I-Team with their versions of the alleged cover up ordered by Chief Arroyo.
"I would like him to sit down with my clients and explain to them why these people are still employed. They aren't even suspended," Cook said.
In response to the I-Team stories, Metro police are now investigating whether the cover up constitutes a crime. The school police have other problems as well. The FBI has also been interviewing witnesses about another incident allegedly swept under the rug involving a district police officer who was accused of pummeling a teenager at Mojave High School while the teen was in custody.
District sources say FBI agents were at school police offices again this week. As the I-Team has reported, CCSD has a poor record with its police chiefs. The first one was fired. The second one, Hector Garcia resigned under a cloud of suspicion. The third, Arroyo, came from the same Florida school district where Garcia worked. According to his online biography, Arroyo worked as a street cop in Miami, then for a private security company, then for the Palm Beach School Police with his friend Hector Garcia.
Anyone who wants to know more about Arroyo's background is out of luck. The I-Team has filed repeated requests for the resume Arroyo submitted when he was hired as chief. The school district says Arroyo's resume -- the one used in his hiring -- is restricted personnel information that can't be released to the public.
The reaction of the school district to their daughter's death is flat out disgusting for Frank and Linda Peterson. "These are the people protecting your children. They're the ones responsible for their safety."
The I-Team has no idea if there is anything embarrassing in Chief Arroyo's background, but in light of the poor job the school district has done in screening its previous chiefs, it is reasonable to look at the claims Arroyo made when he applied for the job.
The district insists though that the public has no right to see what Arroyo submitted and they will not release it.
